"The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled; public
debt should be reduced; and the arrogance of public officials should be
controlled."
-Cicero. 106-43 B.C.

The purpose of this FAQ is to answer some of the questions which are asked
by people visiting the
U.S. National Debt Clock.
If you have a question about the Debt Clock which isn't addressed here,
please send me an e-mail and I'll do my best to answer it on this page.

A:
Here is a pie chart showing the makeup, or ownership, of the National Debt as of
December 1998.

As you can see, the largest slice of the pie, over 40%, is owed to the
Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, and to other
government accounts. BTW, The Fed is actually quasi-public (part private,
part government) so calling it "part of the government" is not
strictly true. You can find out more about The Fed by reading Wikipedia's
excellent article.

The remaining 60% of the Debt is privately held by individuals,
corporations, states, and foreign governments.
As of November 2007, Japan ($580 billion),
China ($390 billon) and the United Kingdom ($320 bilion)
are the
biggest
foreign holders of our Debt.

The above chart information is from the June 1999 issue of the
"Treasury Bulletin",
a quarterly publication of the U.S. Treasury department's
Financial Management Service.
The Treasury Bulletin is the best place to find the latest information
on this subject.

Q:
What is the difference between the Debt and the Deficit?

A:
The National Debt is the total amount of money owed by the government;
the federal budget deficit is the yearly amount by which spending exceeds
revenue. Add up all the deficits (and subtract those few budget surpluses
we've had) for the past 200+ years and you'll get the current National
Debt.

Politicians love to crow "The deficit is down! The deficit is down!" like it's a
great accomplishment. Don't be fooled. Reducing the deficit just means we're
adding less to the Debt this year than we did last year. Big deal --
we're still adding to the Debt. When are we going to start seeing the Debt
actually go down?

Q:
How has the National Debt grown over time?

A:
The National Debt on January 1st 1791 was just $75 million dollars.
Today, it rises by that amount every hour or so.

The following graph shows how the National Debt has grown
year by year since 1940 in actual dollar amounts, uncorrected
for inflation:

From time to time, I've gotten e-mail saying that the above graph
is flawed -- it's just showing normal inflation. Well, I took
the Debt numbers from the above graph and converted them all to
2000 dollars. Picking a different year would not have changed the
shape of the graph below, just its height:

As you can see, except for a rise at the end of World War II, the
Debt remained remarkably constant for nearly forty years when
inflationary forces are taken into account. After 1983 however,
with the notable exception of the Fiscal Years ending in September
of 2000 and 2001, the trend has been upward even when inflation is
taken into account.

Q:
I looked at the Debt Clock yesterday and I think it showed a higher value than it does today. Is the Debt going down?

A:
Unfortunately, no. On average, the Debt is always rising but there are some
day to day fluctuations which can cause the debt to actually go down for a
day or two. The long term averages however, show that the Debt just keeps
getting higher and higher.

Q:
When did the Debt pass the $8 trillion mark?

A:
On October 18th 2005, the Outstanding Public Debt rose to
$8,003,897,406,911.24 -- the first time it had risen above $8 trillion.

Q:
When did the Debt pass the $7 trillion mark?

A:
On January 15th 2004, the Outstanding Public Debt jumped $13 billion
to $7,001,852,607,623.35. This was the first time in history the U.S.
National Debt surpassed the $7 trillion mark and came less than two years
after the Debt first passed $6 trillion.

As a comparison, the National Debt took over six years to rise from
$5 trillion to $6 trillion.

Q:
How accurate is your Debt Clock?

A:
As accurate as I can make it!
Every business day, the U.S. Treasury department releases new Debt figures for
the previous day. I periodically get these figures and use them to adjust the
Debt Clock's value so it remains accurate.

I, or rather the CGI code I wrote for the Debt Clock, then calculate the current value
of the Debt by a simple linear extrapolation between the recent date's value and the
value for the debt about a year previously.

I also get up to date population figures from the Census Department's
Population Clock
and use this to calculate each person's share of the total debt.

Q:
Can I put a link from my page to your Debt Clock page?

A:
Of course! Please do! Just put the following snippet of HTML code of your
page and you're all set:

I do have one request though: Please do NOT put my GIF image
of the current debt figure directly onto your page.
First of all, the number will always be a little out of date due to the way
my CGI program is written. Secondly, visitors to your site won't be able to
read the rest of my page and learn more about the Debt. Lastly, (and most importantly to me =)
you are giving the impression that you, not I, did all the work necessary to create
and maintain the Debt Clock.

Thanks for your understanding and your cooperation.

Q:
What can we do about the Debt?

A: Write or call your U.S.
Senators and your Representative. Tell them your concerns and ask them
what they're doing to reduce both the Deficit and the Debt. If you don't like
their answers, vote them out of office!

Call the Concord Coalition,
a group dedicated to eliminating federal budget deficits, at their
toll-free number: 1-888-DEFICIT (1-888-333-4248) and ask them your
questions. You may very well end up joining the Concord Coalition!

If either of your Senators or your Representative has a web page which discusses
reducing the Debt (not just the deficit) and/or they have a link to my Debt Clock (I've
heard that some do) drop me a line
with their URL and I'll put together a list of "the Good Guys" in Congress.